More

More from Complex Networks

Complex International

COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive.

Buy It Now: Racing While Black: How an African-American Stock Car Team Made its Mark on NASCAR

WHAT:Racing While Black: How an African-American Stock Car Team Made its Mark on NASCAR, by Leonard T. Miller and Andrew Simon

PRICE: $18

FUN FACT: Co-author Andrew Simon, now a senior editor at ESPN The Magazine, was formerly the managing editor at Complex.

WHY COMPLEX IS CO-SIGNING IT: Even if you're not an avid racing fan, we're sure you've caught the grand oval spectacle know as NASCAR at least once in your life. After all, behind the NFL, it's the second most-viewed sports league in the country. However, there's one major difference between NASCAR and the rest of America's pastimes: a startling lack of racial diversity. Leonard T. Miller's book explains why. Racing While Black tells the exhilarating and fascinating story of how the Miller Racing Group, an auto-racing team started by Leonard's father, Leonard W. Miller, became the first black-owned team to win a NASCAR track championship. Miller and Simon give you a firsthand account of all the wins and losses that come with creating a racing team, along with the extreme prejudices that minorities must overcome just to make it to the track. We follow Miller as he searches for sponsors and tries to find engine and part suppliers that won't give him sub-part equipment just because he's black. We get to see the pressure that goes along with being the only black people in an all-white world. Even more importantly, the book is a call for a better system of getting young blacks and other minorities into the world of auto racing. Is it any easier for minorities to get into auto racing in 2010? No, not really. But as we learn from the Miller Racing Group, with a lot of hard work, dedication and little bit of swag in your step, it's possible.

POST CONTINUES BELOW

CLICK here to BUY IT NOW at Amazon.com, $17.96
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------• CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE COMPLEX RIDES POSTS...